Ones to Watch: Data-driven Startups from the UK

PerformanceIN loves a good success story. That is why each month our research takes us from country to country in search of promising new startups that demonstrate originality, innovation and the talent to stand out in the highly competitive performance marketing industry.

The ‘Ones to Watch’ series provides a brief glimpse into the types of companies that are set to make big waves in the world of performance marketing. We are staying close to home this month as we take a look at some of UK’s hottest data-driven startups.

The British startup scene is world famous and no longer exclusive to East London’s Silicon Roundabout. Business is booming from Belfast to Brighton and let us not forget that Manchester too has been a very capable proving ground of late.

Big data has never been bigger or more important to businesses. Its intense growth has left us with the incredibly difficult task of narrowing our selection to five companies. The list you see below is an example of the vastly different applications data has in the marketing industry.

Founded: 2011

By: Gawain Morrison

Investment: $909.2k

A harbinger for the inevitable course of market research, Sensum is a platform that captures, consolidates and analyses data from wearable technology. The company’s armoury of tools dubbed ‘Supernova Suite’ allows for the analysis of media campaigns and user experience by measurement of participants’ vitals- from galvanic skin response to heart rate, EEG to eye-tracking, and 3D motion to temperature.

A case in point, Sensum deployed its platform on a national rail provider between London and Edinburgh. Consolidating a sample passenger’s physical data with audio and video recording, it was able to highlight areas of stress, which included the taxi journey, ticket hall and finding the correct platform. Of particular interest were the reactions to wifi problems, cold tea and a lack of cutlery with food, which contributed to the participant's overall negative experience of the journey, bringing attention to key areas for brand improvement.

Boasting an already diverse portfolio, the Belfast-based, internet of things company was able to come out of beta-testing last year after receiving an investment of $600k in Q4 last year and is now available for commercial use.

The idea behind this one is a bit more simple than biometrics. YOOBIC helps brands control their point of sales execution in store, allowing them to become agile and make adjustments instantly with reference to crowdsourced data.

Brands create the instant in-store surveys which may include photos or video. YOOBIC processes the data, collected by one of the its paid ‘Field explorers’, and the brand then decides whether to take any action based on YOOBIC’s findings.

YOOBIC checks all data against its GPS location, timestamps it, verifies images, and rewards its explorers based on the quality of their performance in an effort to ensure their client's information is valid.

After nearly a year in beta mode, trak.io launched in April this year alongside an investment of $150k. The company gives small tech companies and startups with a small user-base a platform to analyse each of their customers individually, allowing them to target relevant messages and products at the right time.

Trak.io was initially aimed at developers but its creators quickly discovered that companies' non-technical marketing and sales teams were also desiring this level of insight into their customers. Additional CRM features were added as a result and have been made available for company-wide use on a simple dashboard. As team focus shifts, metrics can be added or removed, and behaviour reports can be made 'on the fly' with real-time data to help optimise workflows such as the signup and checkout process.

Less a brainchild, and more a meeting of minds, TUMRA’s founders Paul Kullich (CEO) and Michael Cutler (CTO) brought together both an advanced business and technical background in targeted advertising from their previous posts at British Sky Broadcasting Group.

TUMRA is said to mean ‘big’ in Sanskrit, which is fitting for an agency bringing the latest ‘Big Data Science’ algorithms and technologies to market in a Software-as-a-Service package. The company combines its experience and expertise in large scale data analysis, machine learning and visualisation to solve complex problems- crafting bespoke solutions powered by its self-built data processing platform.

For early access to its products, TUMRA Labs allows you to request an API-Key and experiment with its prototype machine learning powered services, including probabilistic demographics, language detection and sentiment analysis.

This one is not really new on the scene, but it is more than worthy of a place on a list of UK data startups.

Founded in 2009 by programmer Geoff Watts, now CEO, and fashion designer Julia Fowler, winner of Forbes 2012 ‘Women Entrepreneurs to Watch’, EDITD quantifies data from fashion blogs, mood boards, retail sites and social media, and makes the data available to fashion buyers, merchandisers and designers across the fashion industry.

According to online fashion retailer ASOS, one of the company’s major subscribers, EDITD was responsible for a 37% revenue increase in the last quarter of 2013 thanks to its real-time data analysis, which helps buyers understand ever changing demand, reduce wastage and minimise purchasing errors.

EDITD’s total funding to date is announced at $6m, and the company is now used by some of the world’s best fashion retailers across five continents.

In the upcoming month we will be listening out for the newest, most exciting names emerging from the startup scene. We would like this to be a collaborative project, so if you have a tip-off, or know a company that deserves a little recognition, please leave a comment below, tweet us, or email us at content@performancein.com.